Glucagon-like peptide-2 (GLP-2) is a 33 amino acid peptide, which is expressed in a tissue determined fashion from the pleiotrophic glucagon gene and is highly related in terms of amino acid sequence to glucagon and Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). Mammalian forms of GLP-2 are highly conserved: for example, the human and degu (a south American rodent) forms differ by one and three amino acids respectively from rat GLP-2. Recently it was demonstrated that GLP-2 is an intestinotrophic peptide hormone; when given exogenously, GLP-2 can produce a marked increase in the proliferation of small intestinal epithelium of the test mice (Drucker et al, (1996) PNAS, 93:7911-7961). More recently, GLP-2 has been shown to increase D-Glucose maximal transport rate across the intestinal basolateral membrane. (Cheeseman and Tseng: American Journal of Physiology (1996) 271:G477-G482)
To accelerate research into gastrointestinal biology and development of drugs useful in the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, it would be useful to provide the receptor through which the effects of GLP-2 are mediated.